ancient ruined city locales

[Gilladian]

For quite a while now I've been designing a major ruined city adventure for my PCs. It's intended that they should stumble on the ruins (or be led to them) by about 6th level, and maybe hang out in them for most of the rest of their careers, sans the time they spend getting backstabbed in the city (a week or more's travel away).

Anyway, the ruins are set deep in an everglade-like swamp.

Here's what I have written so far:
home.hot.rr.com/vishteer/ruins.htm

What I'd love is some suggestions for other places in the ruins and the types of encounters that could happen there. I'm not looking for more intelligent foes, just interesting locations. Traps, undead, automatons, golems, etc... are all great ideas I'm going to work in eventually. And of course there will be lots of tunnels and such "inside" the city disk.

I've got in mind that there must be a Great Temple, a Mint, a Barracks for the Imperial Guard, Merchant's Guild Hall, Monument Park, Great Market and a Wizard's College.

Would anybody like to help me describe/define any of these locations? I'll repost the finished document to my site for all to share.

One thing - I do run a FAIRLY low magic world, with no psionics.

Gilladian

 

[Morpheus]

Take a look at the Lost City of Gaxmoor by Troll Lord Games. It sounds exactly the same as what you are soing and you could porbably get some ideas from it.

 

[Ringmaster]

Original to the flying city:
- Aeries for flying mounts/inhabitants
- Elevator rooms for non-flyers to reach the ground (blocked underneath (by the second inhabitants)
- "Engine" rooms - whatever powered the city's flight operated in these spaces (if the PCs learn what these are they may learn that the city once flew and how to restore it - or steal the magic/mechanism that allowed flight)
- Library (if you eventually want the language deciphered, this is the place)

The resort city (at its peak):
- Opulent public baths/spas (ooze anyone?)
- Themed resort villas
- Entertainment venues - amphiteaters, music halls, race tracks (track around the city?)
- Gardens (a monstrous topiary ecology)

The resort city (in decline):
- Levies and dams to keep the swamps from, well, swamping the city (PCs could have to break/rebuild one)
- Perfumed walls on the windward side of the city to mask the reek of the swamp (could become an exotic "quarry")
- Entertainment venues - arenas for bloodsport (undead a-plenty)
- Above-ground Cemeteries - think New Orleans. Swampy ground didn't allow for burial underground, so a virtual maze of small tombs crops up. Perhaps not something that would be part of a resort city.

The city now:
- The Sentry Web - A special kind of webbing spiders use as their early warning system (think tripwires) Maybe only special Sentry spiders can spin it.
- Hatchery - creepy eggsacks and lots of tiny spiders
- Compost Heap/Graveyard - where the spiders dump the desicated bodies of their prey
- Yuan-ti/Mercenary outpost - a small overtaken building that is a base of operations for the Yuan-ti in an area, like a camp or barracks. Food, weapons, healing kits, but most importantly - MAPS.


***Anybody looking for inspiration when creating cities should try to get hold of a copy of Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Amazon.com has a good excerpt.

Good luck, this sounds really cool.

 

[Gilladian]

Ringmaster,
This looks great, just the kind of input I was hoping for. I hadn't thought of flying creatures and aeries for some reason. Hmmmm......

I don't think I'll need levies, because the stone disk sits some 2-5 feet above the level of the surrounding swamps (2' during winter, as much as 5' in summer when there is drought) although a good hurricane would certainly cause major flooding and I could see levies once having existed to prevent this, but they'd be long gone by now. After all, it's been over 800 years since anyone lived here.

I love the sentry-spider idea. I'm going to write something up to do this.

Scented walls would be great. Maybe they used plants for this. Huge walls of jasmine and honeysuckle, now grown into wild forms. And living topiary - perfect for the ancient palace grounds!

Anyone else have any ideas to offer?

Gilladian